Security

In honor of Cyber Monday, the feds cracked down on Web sites allegedly selling counterfeit goods. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it joined forces with international law enforcement authorities to nab 132 domain names that were supposedly hawking bogus sports jerseys, DVD sets, jewelry, and clothing.

"Our partnerships enable us to go after criminals who are duping unsuspecting shoppers all over the world," Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton said in a statement. "This is not an American problem, it is a global one and it is a … Read more

Twitter took some heat earlier this month for resetting more passwords than necessary after detecting a security breach in its microblogging network, as CNET's Daniel Terdiman reported on the Internet & Media blog.

The more followers you have, the more potential damage may result from a compromised Twitter account. That's why it's big news when the Twitter feeds of media organizations such as Reuters and Fox News are breached by hackers who post false news stories.

CNET News Editor Steven Musil describes the two attacks on the Reuters Twitter account last August, and Fox News' infamous erroneous … Read more

I admit it. I love deals and I love researching for the best deals out there. In addition, as much as I hate to admit it, I have been one of those people, who wait overnight on a cold Thanksgiving night for the store to open at 4am the next day, so I can get that super-sized deal on a laptop, a TV, more SD cards, external hard drives I really don't need, DVDs I will never watch again - anything electronics-related all excited me on Black Fridays. Actually, what typically happens is that I end up calling all … Read more

It's that time of the year again, when savvy shoppers like yourself head to your favorite online retailers to avoid the ridiculous shenanigans and flesh-pressing of Black Friday. But just because you know enough to buy online doesn't mean that there aren't some good tips worth paying attention to. Here are a few worth repeating for habitual online shoppers.

Change your passwords now because chances are, you haven't in a long time. Change your e-mail account password, change your banking password, and change the passwords for online shopping accounts like at Amazon. A good tip for … Read more

The United States has been charged with launching a cyberattack against France -- a claim the U.S. government has categorically denied.

According to L'Express, a French news outlet, sources with knowledge of a cyberattack that occurred in May have said the U.S. was behind the attack. The news outlet claims that the attack occurred a few days before the country's presidential election and targeted "the team of [former French President] Nicolas Sarkozy."

L'Express' sources say the hackers worked their way through Sarkozy's team to attack his closest advisers. In order to climb … Read more

You want a copy of Windows 8 Pro? Go ahead and download it -- Microsoft is giving the keys away for free.

According to VentureBeat, an interesting exploit on Microsoft's download page allows users to pick up a free copy of Windows 8 Pro -- directly from the website, and at no cost.

If you attempt to download the free Microsoft Windows Media Center upgrade, which is being offered until January 31, a strange side effect takes hold. Windows 8 Pro will be permanently activated.

For the pirates among us, this would provide a handy workaround for the tech … Read more

Norton Mobile Security has taken the unusual step today of merging its mobile licensing so that you pay once and can use the mobile security suite on either Android or iOS. It's an effort to make Norton's security more accessible, and parent company Symantec wants to turn Norton accessibility into a security service.

The change isn't drastic, said Con Mallon, senior director of Norton mobile product management, but natural. "The new Norton Mobile Security is both a Web service and a mobile service," he said in a phone interview with CNET. "We're going … Read more

Anonymous' hacking campaign against Israel to protest its attacks on Gaza escalated today with the release of a list of thousands of individuals who supposedly donated to a pro-Israel organization.

The collective posted a Pastebin document that it said featured names -- and in some cases home addresses and e-mail addresses -- of donors for the Unity Coalition for Israel, which claims to represent "the largest network of pro-Israel groups in the world." The document appears to be quite old: one of the military e-mail addresses belonged to Douglas Feith, the U.S. undersecretary for defense under Bush, … Read more

Adobe has temporarily closed one of its user forums after a hacker caused a data breach.

The forum, Connectusers.com, allows Adobe customers to share information and opinions about its Connect online conferencing service, which is used to host Web conferences, e-learning, and webinars.

However, after a hacker hailing from Egypt posted a purported file dump containing user details from the site on Pastebin, Adobe pre-emptively took down the forum and said it will reset the passwords of affected site members.

The file dump, posted by the alleged hacker using the alias ViruS_HimA, apparently contains over 150,000 e-mail addresses … Read more